Sunny didn't expect it to work. He stared at the counter, another of his creations, existing solely so he doesn't have to guess how many fragments he possesses, a weak replacement for a function of the Spell. The sight deepened his dejection. He spent months grinding that much, and the effect was laughable.
His aspect was definitely designed by a mad engineer to make his life hard. Everyone else could get partial fragments or at least get fragments from the creatures of lower Ranks, but him? Not in a lifetime! It seemed like his aspect was made to make him struggle, and depend on lucky encounters specifically designed for him by someone. Who might that be?
He cursed internally, because he knew the answer. It was still the same guy who expected him to face the future without directly telling what's going on. It was as if the entity in question feared that it's unable to form any reliable connection, and find someone to trust. On the other hand his struggles as a mortal taught him that connections are valuable, even if not in the form of friendship, then at least someone that could be trusted as professionals.
But what if literally everyone that is mighty enough to be of any help has become your enemy simply because you didn't want to follow their cause?
He could somewhat relate to that. Sometimes after betraying everyone, or being betrayed by everyone it doesn't feel right to expect others to trust you. He saw no reason why this piece of wisdom can't also apply here. Still this is all empty speculation.
So where was he? Oh, yes, he fed a ridiculous number of nightmare creatures to that blasted tree. In a mysterious way the bodies were handled to the tree so it can devour them. There had to be a way in which the tree can turn killed creatures into those red fruits. Probably a unique innate ability was involved in the process.
If the ratio of souls to fruits was as bad as the ratio of souls to Noctis' coins, it would be sheer insanity. That would mean that thralls killing the creatures would sacrifice many Awakened Beasts only to make one fruit that grants one fragment. Sunny suspected that the ratio for the tree has to be much better than that, because otherwise there would be no sense in feeding the fruits to the creatures.
The time of watching the tree stretched into hours. Meanwhile he could see multiple events. At the same time he saw himself assisting Cassie in the act of extracting the memories from Master Orum. He was happy to learn there's finally going to be a concrete knowledge of the Sovereigns' power set.
Another of his avatars was watching the battle of his friends against a stripped horse, so called crosswalk. He never had what to refer to when it came to his Shadow, Nightmare, but it turns out that many things he suspected about the horses were indeed true. Horses must be just terrifying creatures. The battle was an epic one, it was like watching a nice movie.
Happy wasn't that important anymore. His sister was relatively safe. Rain was in the process of settling in Ravenheart. He wasn't going to bother her for some time. The girl was definitely smart, and after so long she knew how to work herself, while settling in that place was going to take more than a few days…
Meanwhile his mind was slowly developing another disorder. The mind partition responsible for commanding this body was feeling the boredom independently from the rest of his mind despite one of his other partitions being well-entertained.
How long could it be before that tree will consume all souls he provided? To be fair he could overestimate the rate at which the tree will consume everything. The way, and the rate of improvement can vary from one species to another. Fiend, for example, needed many days of continuous consumption to advance its Rank. It makes sense the tree could take a lot of time to digest the gains from thousands of creatures.
But then as if Soul Tree wanted to defy his conjecture, he noticed a sudden change in the soul of the tree. It started to grow in size, and density. Also the fruits lost typical for them ruby shine, and then withered. Which. The silver bark started changing the colors, while the trunk started becoming thicker at visible rate.
'Now it's my chance.'
He swiftly used Shadow Step to close the distance. Then he summoned Mimic, and Saint. Then he turned to his Mimic uttering one, simple command.
"Eat that tree."
He quipped Saint with his bone sword, while he himself jumped at the closest thrall, and killed it using Soul Serpent in the form of odachi. Saint didn't wait long either, and soon she slashed another thrall to death in one flawless motion. The two of them unleashed a quick merciless carnage. After a few minutes there were no thralls, anymore,
When they finished the last one Mimic unpacked his body from the outline of a little hut, and his eyes met the grotesque sight of a slender body, having more than five meters in height, and one big head in size, and shape of the hut. The previous house turned into a big mouth decorated with multiple lines of sinister jagged teeth. Whatever was behind the stone walls, it wasn't his house anymore. His house was well hidden in its storage space, while the 'surface' was switched for the actual digestive system. It wasn't Marvelous Mimic. It was Mordant Mimic, and he bit straight into the bark of the covering thickening trunk.
The leaves started shaking in a panicked rustle. It was giant, and strong, and yet if felt, beautiful, and benevolent, and weak.
'Could he… just wait a bit for the tree to fully become Corrupted, and then check if its fruits will give him shadow fragments? Yes, that was indeed an idea… He could repeatedly leave all those weak creatures for the tree, and then gain for himself. If he only stopped Mimic from…'
'Sunny, snap out of it!'
It was Cassie's voice screaming inside his head.
Sunny shook his head. It seemed that even with his resistance he could still be influenced by the tree. The tree was desperate so its will to do something with Sunny was at its strongest, and now that will was empowered by the process of transcen… corruption it has become a much more tangible force.
Unfortunately the power set of the tree revolved around sharing gathered fragments with others, and mind manipulation. Aside from that it didn't possess any direct combat abilities, and there was no one to protect it from his Mimic gnawing through its wood. Even if it tried to put the Mimic under the influence of mind hex, Sunny could command his Shadow to continue. And even if not, Mimic, before becoming his Shadow, was enchanted by him to be resistant against mind effects.
[Stalwart] was an enchantment from his Mantle of the Underworld, but when applied to a living creature the effects of enchantments tend to be much more potent. Saint was an interesting example of that notion, and unfortunately she was also the only example ever known. Or was it? There was also Fiend after all.
Gradually the Mimic was able to consume more, and more of it, filling the space inside the actual belly. The space that probably had even more teeth, and all those different tools made to process the food, which undoubtedly were very powerful. at one point in history hus Shadow used to dine on Corrupted creatures, many of them were also very… voluminous. But could any be as voluminous as the tree?
Regardless of the answer Sunny could see that Mimic didn't show any intention of slowing down. If anything the Minic after tasting the dark wood has grown even more gluttonous. Everything was accompanied by the shriek-like rustling of the tree.
Many years ago he promised to himself he will kill the tree. That promise wasn't even that important or even exactly about destroying it. The clou was that he was afraid of it. That's why he wanted to destroy it, because once it's destroyed he's not going to be afraid again. Now as he was witnessing the promise coming true, he knew he's still going to be afraid of many things. Even Six Gods had their own fears. Becoming fearless isn't as simple as becoming a god.
He was disappointed in the tree, but beyond all he was disappointed in himself. The promise in the end was motivated by a wrong premise so keeping it won't change anything at all. Screw the symbolism.
The process of consumption was advancing slowly, but at some point Mimic gnawed through so deep so he wondered if it's going to find something interesting there, like some essence of Soul Tree. The Terror wasn't handling it any better. It was practically shaking in agony.
'Yeah, I overdid with my revenge. Cassie, by chance aren't you gonna ask me why I want that tree dead?'
'Does it involve your forbidden past?'
'Yes, unfortunately it does..'
'Then regardless of how shaken I am about seeing you there I know I can't expect to learn the answers. I won't ask you.'
'Good. But you are shaken, don't you?'
'That tree almost got me once. Though, it's not the most disturbing thing. The things I experienced later are far worse.'
'I'm sorry, Cassie. Freedom turned out to be expensive.'
Suddenly he heard a new sound coming from the inside of the tree. It wasn't the sound of teeth grinding against wood. It was more like suction.
'Mimic had found something.'
The tree suddenly lost its previous vigor. Its state deteriorated by a lot. Sunny could tell it was dying. Mimic was about to leave, being satiated already, when he saw the master's cold look.
"Where do you think you're going? Dinner's not finished. I want you to leave plate clean. Don't leave it here at least."
Mimic gave a worried sigh. It was satiated, but even with its lower intelligence it understood. Eating the tree was not beyond it. If that was a problem it could always cut the storage space, and connect it to the digestive system.
So it did that, and then opened its mouth as wide as the trunk while ripping a larger part of the trunk. Then another, bigger part. Then one more. After a few bites the mimic did something absurd. The mouth stretched as far as thick was the trunk at its base, and then started to devour it from below, giving Sunny a big show of horror.
His Shadow Sense wasn't spared either because his Shadows were technically a part of him so bodies didn't obscure their insides from being perceived by him. It was something like a world of teeth, places where nothing was allowed to live, and everything was condemned to be shredded into a mess of primordial soup, and transmuted.
When the crown finally disappeared inside, Mimic changed the direction upside down, and came to devour the roots too.
Only then the tree was gone, and not alive anymore since the trauma had it finally killed. The gore spectacle of devouring the Soul Devouring Tree was finally finished with the final act, Mimic turning back into a little cosy one storey cottage, except of one detail, that it still had legs.
It came to Sunny. Sunny smiled warmly, and patted its non-recognizable face with hand.
"It was truly marvelous, the act of yours. Good job. You're living up to your name, pal. I never saw anyone pretending to be so harmless, and yet at the moment, when a friend needs it, showing so many dental miracles."
Mimic seemed very uncomfortable,but at the same time relieved.
"Now, I know we're not friends for money, at least not just for money, to say that fairly, but let me ask. Have you by any chance produced any coins?"
Mimic shook his 'head' in confirmation.
"Keep them for your evolution. I wish you the best, and the most undisturbed slumber in your life."
Then the Mimic urgently entered the peaceful darkness of his tranquil soul.
Sunny sighed wistfully. He had planned for this happen. The act of eating the Terror caused the Mimic to consume its soul, and it was a soul wielding powers very similar to Mimic. It was actually that similarity that had caused Sunny to try feeding it to Mimic after raising the tree to Corrupted Rank.
He still had in mind the moment when Saint Heart of Darkness caused her to evolve into a Devil. He wondered if that was because Stone Saints were designed by Daemon of Destiny to be able to evolve through consuming specific elements of other creatures, or if it happened because it was a source of true darkness, and Stone Saints were built to have the affinity towards that element.
It was another of Aiko's ideas that came out when he recounted what had caused Saint to evolve. At that point it was really just a hypothesis, but Sunny decided to go with it, and to spend several weeks gathering Fallen creatures, because… well, it's not easy to increase the Class of a creature, and till now only Serpent had the power to make minions like a normal Tyrant should be able to do. That could perhaps – yes, perhaps – allow Sunny to raise an actual army
There was no Spell to announce the process, but he knew his Marvelous Mimic was evolving. He tried to summon it, and that didn't work as in Saint's case. That was good news. He could be just as safe a before without Mimic. Still there's a downside to evolution. He has to wait a month till he can summon Mimic again. Mimic was a useful tool during weaving, and this time he didn't relocate its facilities.
So no using Mimic's essence for weaving. Now he has only the Saint's essence, the Fiend's essence, and the Serpent's essence. Meanwhile, he can actually consider weaving more Memories improving essence regeneration. His years of experience tell him there's never enough essence. It should be a good project for the next month. That also can be brought to his main goal, overthrowing the Sovereign. How is he supposed to take them down if he runs out of essence first?
He looked at the dark expanse thinking of what is about to happen next. Temporarily there was nothing for him to do on the Forgotten Shore. Everything he would want to kill was either weak, and dead, or sealed deep underground, and too powerful to face.
He kind of subjugated the region. Given, it was Neph who did much of work, but he – on the other hand – got her a nice citadel. So maybe that was even.
He could renovate the Nameless Temple, sure, that thing still required a lot if work, to be a clean, nice, natty citadel, however curiosity was slowly taking over him. Wouldn't it be nice to go there, and tell Teacher Julius the story? There was some personal vanity in being the first man in history to explore the new region, something he was more or less aware of.